


Kaleidoscope

by Ririchiiyo



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Car Accidents, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:44:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ririchiiyo/pseuds/Ririchiiyo
Summary: Everyone was taught, from a young age, that from birth, life was drawn out in black and white. Everything was printed in those monochromatic colors, right until the moment a person came into contact with their fateful other for the very first time. From then on, color would begin to blossom, spreading out to paint the world in magnificent hues, colors gracing the world all until the moment their soulmate died, leaving the world as grey and cold as it was before they met them.Of course, Levi Ackerman thought the whole idea was constructed by a mere bunch of idiots waxing poetic about fake shit that no one really gave a damn about. For 30 years of his life, he had seen the world in black and white. There were no ‘green’s, or ‘blue’s, or ‘yellow’s to speak of. Honestly, the idea was one he couldn’t even fathom.So Levi spent 30 years of his life, wondering what was true and what was fiction. He was stuck between wanting to believe in that myth, but at the same time, vehemently denying the possibility of it.What happens when a chance encounter with a stranger proves all those silly tales to be true?





	Kaleidoscope

The first thought that ran through Levi’s head when he saw the world in technicolor for the first time was,  _ Holy shit, I’m going to have to learn the names for all of these fucking colors. _

The second thought?  _ Holy shit, I have a soulmate. _

And then the third:  _ Jesus fucking shitbags, I’m in a crowd full of fucking people. Who the fuck are they? _

It wasn’t too hard after that. He immediately stopped in his place— which was, unfortunately, in the middle of the crosswalk of one of the busiest streets in New York— and looked for someone in a similar state of panic to the one he was in. As the crowd cleared out, his mind went blank and he still stood there dumbly in the middle of the street, gaping at his supposed soulmate standing there on the sidewalk.

All he could take in was that his soulmate looked just as desperate as he did, and that his soulmate was a stupidly attractive  _ boy _ , before said boy grabbed him by the collar and roughly yanked him to the side as a car whipped past where he had just been standing. Great. He had laid his eyes upon his soulmate for a second and they already saved his miserable life.

Levi landed in the arms of his saviour, his face abruptly spinning to face the young man’s.

By the stars, was this boy beautiful. His hair was a wild mess sitting atop his head, looking softer than anything Levi’s ever seen in his life. His eyes were the most exquisite color he’d ever seen, which didn’t say much, given the fact that he’s only been seeing colors for about sixty seconds, now. It didn’t matter. Years later, he could say the same exact thing and it wouldn’t be any less true.

The boy pulled away from Levi and flashed the most brilliant smile he’d ever seen in his life— and he’s lived quite a few years at the age of 30— and asked if he was okay.

And Levi was okay. Shit, he was going to be okay for the rest of his life if this beautiful boy was going to be there to spend it with him. He was completely okay. At least, well, until he realized he was going to be late for his first day at his new workplace.

He quickly scribbled his name and number on a scrap of paper and left it with the young man, hurriedly explaining that he needed to go because he was already late to his new job and he really couldn’t afford to be fired.

Later that day, after all the papers and phone calls were out of the way, when he’d finally gotten a chance to breathe, he checked his phone and found a text from an unknown number. He replied with a tender smile curling at the corners of his lips and opened a door to late night conversations and a brilliant future.

* * *

“Move in with me.”

Eren froze. He dropped his fork with a clatter and stared up blankly at Levi.

Levi stiffened in his seat and gripped his own thigh. The soft glow of the candlelight did nothing to hide the flush creeping over his cheeks. Maybe he asked too soon? They  _ had _ only been dating for a couple of months, now. This was, what? Their eighth actual date? Oh  _ fuck _ , that wasn’t even a double-digit number. It was too soon. He internally shook his head. It was too late to be getting cold feet.

“Move in with me,” he reiterated. “...please.”

Eren didn’t move for a while, seemingly lost in his thoughts. After what seemed like an eternity, he shrugged, picked up his fork, and resumed eating, not sparing Levi a single glance.

Levi regretted his entire life to this point. He just wished for whatever god was out there to just take him now. Of course he was stuck with a soulmate that didn’t want him. Wait, no, they were out on another date, Eren must want him at least a little bit. Right? Oh, sweet freckled Jesus, he was stuck with a soulmate that was afraid of commitment. He wasn’t complaining, though. He’d stick by Eren for as long as he could, even if it eventually ended with his own definitively cruel and bitter heartbreak-

“Sure.”

Levi’s brows creased as he scrutinized Eren’s expression. His face, for once, was an impassable mask.  _ That _ was a reassuring sign.

“‘Sure’? Is that a yes? A no? A ‘ _ I’m having a harder time deciding whether I want to shit in the same place as you or not than taking an actual shit _ ’? I’m not-”

Eren’s face twisted up in a rather peculiar expression before he suddenly burst out into a sparkling laughter.

“Oh my God, you should have seen your face!” Eren cried, tears threatening to weep from his eyes. He began to slap the table in his mirth, and some of the nearby patrons shot them distasteful glances. After a minute, he began to sober up, wiping the tears from his eyes and smiling brilliantly at Levi. With a tender gaze, Eren reached across the table and grasped the hand Levi didn’t know he was clenching. “Of course I’ll move in with you. God, yes, a million times, yes. I wanted to ask you myself, but I didn’t know if that would be too forward of me, or if it would have been too early to ask in the relationship, or…”

Eren cut himself off and flushed, blinking a few times before grinning bashfully at Levi. The older man, himself, let out a breath he held for far too long.

“Great. That’s… great. I’m glad.” Levi muttered and gripped the larger hand in his.

Eren only laughed and leaned over to plant a sweet kiss on his boyfriend’s lips.

* * *

Three years after Levi met his fateful partner, he still had the job at the company he had just started working at back then. The president of the company, Erwin Smith, had somehow become his best friend along the way. Levi worked the normal nine-to-five, just looking over charts and graphs and other boring shit. He didn’t mind at all. It was just his kind of job.

It was just a normal day at the office. He was trying to get his shitload of work done so he could get out and go home to his beautiful boyfriend waiting for him at home.

Levi leaned back in his chair sighing and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them again, he frowned and blinked once. Twice. Had he rubbed them too hard? He glared at the sheets in front of him, willing his eyes to focus, to differentiate the colors spread out on the table before him. Frustrated, he squeezed his eyes shut before prying them open once more, scanning the room around him.

Alarm bells rang in his head as a terrible twisting feeling settled in his gut. Ice cold adrenaline shot through his veins. He snapped his head to the right frantically to look at the door. His red door that will still be a deep red when he-

Heart dropping to the floor, he whipped his head around the office, taking in the grey fern, the grey books, the grey, grey,  _ grey. _

Levi’s world stopped when he looked out the window to see a grey sky— and it shattered.

It’s funny how he’d spent ten times as many years living in the grey world than he’s lived in the multicolored one— yet he had already forgotten what it looked like. What a cruel reminder. He hated it.

He desperately snatched up his phone from the desk and dialed the first contact, breath coming in shuddered gasps as he tried to force down the panic. His mind ran a mile a minute.

_ It was a mistake. We weren’t actually soulmates, we- we just found each other and our soulmates at the same exact time. Someone else dies. Someone I never met, someone I never fell in love with is dead. He can’t be dead because 22 is too young to be  _ dead _. He’s at home, safe. He’ll pick up the phone. Pick up the  _ phone _ , Eren. _

The phone went straight to voicemail.

He let out a strangled sob. Snatching up his keys, he burst through the door of his office and rushed towards the parking garage of the building. He passed by his coworkers, all of whom gave his curious stares as he passed by. On his way out of the elevator, he nearly passed by Erwin, who grabbed his arm and asked him where he was going. One look at Levi’s look of feral desperation was all he needed, and he gripped the arm in his hand tighter. Levi’s eyes widened and he thrashed in his hold, trying to get out of Erwin’s grasp.

Erwin’s heart went out to his friend as he took in the sight before him. Levi truly loves the boy.

“Erwin, you  _ motherfucker _ , let me go!  _ Let me go! _ I need to see if- I need to… our apartment- I need to- need to…” Levi’s eyes glazed over as his breath quickened, lungs feeling small. His heart pounded in his chest, blood rushing through his ears. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real. This haze would lift and the dull blacks and greys would turn to a brilliant, glowing viridian, and Eren would be there. Eren will be there, gently shaking him to wake him up from this nightmare.

His head abruptly snapped to the side and a stinging sensation crawled through his cheek. The haze in his head suddenly swept away and left him with a heightened sense of clarity.

Anger glowed in his veins, surging through him hand-in-hand with the pain. His grief. “The fuck was that for?” he growled lowly.

Erwin had a grim look on his face as he took Levi by the shoulders and shook him harshly. “You’re in no state to be driving right now. I’ll drive, but you need to  _ calm down _ .”

The energy drained out of his body and Levi slumped, nodding numbly as he let Erwin drag him by the arm to his car. The blond strappen the seatbelt over Levi and started the engine, and as they pulled out of the parking lot, Levi lost himself once more. The minutes blurred together as he stared into space.

What happens now? Will he live the rest of his life without Eren, now? Will he continue to see the world in these dull shades of grey? He couldn’t imagine it. A life without Eren. He couldn’t. It felt too wrong. It was like trying to play golf without a ball. Like trying to make a sandwich with just the bread. It was incomplete. Meaningless. He couldn’t live a life without Eren. Maybe he wouldn’t have to. Maybe he could-

Erwin shook Levi’s shoulder and he snapped back to reality, shoving the door open and falling out onto the sidewalk. Now wasn’t the time to pity himself. He sprinted up the path to the lobby doors, Erwin at his heels.

He had completely forgone the elevator, running up the stairs two steps at a time to the third floor. He shakily fumbled with his keychain, trying and failing to insert his key into the hole, and dropped them to the floor. Levi bent down to try to pick them up unsuccessfully, vision impaired by the film of tears over his eyes.

Erwin caught up with Levi then, and straightened Levi with a firm hand on his shoulder. Picking up the keys himself, he solemnly unlocked his friend’s door and let Levi shove himself bodily through the doorway.

Levi tore wildly through the small apartment, calling out for his lover with small ragged gasps of his name. His eyes landed on the coffee table and Eren’s phone that rested on top. He snatched it up and found the battery to be dead.

He dropped the phone and gripped his hair tightly. He didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know where Eren was, or what he was doing, or if he was even still  _ breathing _ . Judging by how the turquoise vase that Eren loved so much was not a dark grey— probably not.

Levi’s knees wobbled before he fell to the ground. His hands found the cold phone on the ground and he clutched it tightly, holding it to his chest.

He was alone again. He had forgotten what it felt like.

A shrill ringtone cut through the air, the phone in in his pocket vibrating, pulsing against his thigh. In a final burst of desperation, he shot to his feet, shoved his hand into his pocket and tugged it out, answering without even bothering to check the caller ID.

“Eren?!”

A deep voice rang clear through the receiver. “ _ Is this Mr. Levi Ackerman? _ ”

Whatever was left of his heart shattered into a million pieces. Levi fell back onto the couch behind him and felt his body go numb.

“Yeah… yes, that’s-that’s me.” his voice sounded broken, even in his own ears. He dimly processed feeling a heavy hand rest on his shoulder.

“ _ Thirty-eight minutes ago, we received an unconscious man with brown hair and green eyes in the ER. He’s about five feet, seven inches tall and had no identification on his person. We found a slip of paper in his wallet with this number and your name written on it. Are you familiar with this person? _ ”

A sliver of hope planted itself in his chest. He tried to tamp it down before he could disappoint himself.

“Yes. That’s Eren Jaeger.” It hurt to say his name.

“ _ What’s his date of birth? _ ”

“March thirtieth, nineteen-ninety-four.”

Silence stretched over the line. Levi could hear the tapping of keys and a sharp, hushed exchange of words from the other side. What must have been a minute felt like a century.

“ _ Unknown ER patient identity confirmed. Jaeger, Eren. _ ” the man said to someone in the room. The next sentence was directed at Levi. “ _ Do you know any of his immediate family members? _ ”

“No, he doesn’t have- It’s just… me. It’s just me.”

“ _ Who are you in relation to the patient? _ ”

“I’m his boyfriend.” Levi murmured.

“ _ Very well. It is urgent that you come to Sina Hospital immediately. _ ”

Levi felt his muscles relax deceptively, but a phantom tension still settled over his body.

“Is he okay? What happened to him?!”

“ _ We cannot disclose that information until you arrive at the hospital. _ ”

“What?! Why the- Okay. Alright. Thank you.”

Levi’s hand dropped to his lap as the dial tone rang from his phone. Confusion swirled around his head as he vaguely wondered why everything was grey. He sat unmoving on the couch for a few more seconds before realising what he was doing. He abruptly stood and whirled around to level an animalistic glare at Erwin.

“Take me to Sina Hospital,  _ now. _ ”

* * *

If you were sitting in the waiting room of Sina Hospital at four-twenty-six on a certain afternoon, you would have witnessed a shorter-than-average, angry, frantic little man break through the doors, closely followed by a taller-than-average giant of a man. If there was a new crack on the door of the emergency room lobby, no one noticed.

Levi stomped his way to the front desk and slammed his hands down on the counter. A poor young lady, timid and shy, squeaked and jumped a mile out of her seat.

“Eren Jaeger. Where the fuck is Eren Jaeger?”

“J-jaeger?” she quickly tapped on her keyboard.

“I’m sorry… the patient has died just about four hours ago…”

Levi slumped to the ground. The logic of the statement completely flew over his head. He faintly heard Erwin speak to the receptionist with an authoritative tone.

“Are you sure it’s Jaeger? Eren Jaeger?”

The receptionist squeaked. “Oh, I made a mistake, I’m so sorry. Ernest Jearling was the one who…” Her face turned a bright red. “Nevermind that. You said Eren Jaeger?”

Erwin gave a firm nod of his head.

Levi foolishly allowed himself to feel a glimmer of hope. For the last time, he allowed himself to clutch onto what little  _ good _ was left in the world.

“Eren Jaeger was admitted into this hospital a little over an hour ago after getting into a fatal car accident. He was hit by a drunk driver when crossing the road. To my understanding, he was found dead on scene, but was resuscitated in the ambulance on the way here. He’s still under operation right now, so you’ll have to wait for a little while.”

Levi’s heart stopped in his chest. Eren had died. Eren had died, but he’d come back to life. He was okay for the moment. He was going to come out of this okay. He was okay.

He nodded distractedly to the lady behind the desk and dragged himself over to one of the hard plastic chairs on the side of the room. Levi dropped his head in his hands and let out a harsh breath. He felt Erwin take a seat beside him.

Neither spoke as they sat quietly in the waiting room of the hospital. All they had to do now was wait.

* * *

“Mr. Levi?”

A feminine voice coming from the front of the room roused Levi from his restless sleep. He straightened immediately, his spine making a series of cracking sounds.

“Eren?”

The nurse made her way over to the men in the corner of the room and smiled down at him. “Mr. Jaeger just got out of surgery, and he was only conscious for a short while. He asked for a Levi? He’s unconscious at the moment,” she said gently. “But you can go see him if you’d like?”

Levi nodded and hurriedly followed the nurse down the hallway. Erwin excused himself to make a few phone calls.

“Mr. Jaeger was in surgery for about thirteen hours. His condition is pretty stable, so he should be okay.”

Levi, still sluggish from sleep, only nodded. They marched briskly through the hallways, stopping in front of a closed white door. Room H104.

The nurse slid open the door and turned to face Levi.

“This is his room. If you need anything, call a nurse with the button by the headboard, alright?” She patted his shoulder and left.

The raven swallowed thickly, feet planted firmly in place. What would he see when he walked through that door?

Levi sat at Eren’s bedside, wanting to touch him, but afraid to do so in fear of it all being an illusion. He was afraid if he got too close, Eren would shatter and melt away through his fingertips.

When Eren woke up nearly six hours later, Levi’s heart stopped for the hundredth time that day. Eren’s eyes slowly opened, blurry and unfocused. He seemed as though he were teetering on the edge of sleep again, but seemed to wake up more as his eyes landed on Levi. His eyes creased, and his mouth didn’t exactly smile, but when he slowly raised his arms barely an inch above the mattress, beckoning Levi for an embrace, Levi was there in a heartbeat.

He haltingly lurched forward and tenderly took Eren into his arms. His eyes were squeezed shut, his mind still convinced that everything was a dream.

“You fucking idiot. I- I thought you were dead.” his voice cracked. “You left your phone on the damn coffee table. You didn’t even bring your license with you? The only way the hospital knew to contact me was because of that dumb slip of paper in your wallet with my name and number on it. You still had that?”

Eren just smiled weakly and nodded against his shoulder. His voice came out muffled through the breathing mask over his mouth. “Of course I did. It was the first bit of proof I ever got that said I wasn’t alone in this world.”

“You’re a sentimental little shit, did you know that?” the raven jibed a little tearfully.

Eren’s eyes began to droop, the morphine taking an apparent toll on his body. Levi allowed himself to shed a few more tears.

“But I’m your… little sentim… shit… right?” Eren mumbled out incoherently.

Eren’s eyes opened once more, turning to look at Levi through bleary, unfocused eyes. Eren’s eyes were grey— everything else in the world still was— but Levi still couldn’t find himself to give a single shit. As long as he still had Eren, as long as he had his heart, he would be okay. Levi would find his green in the way Eren smiled. He would find yellow in his laughter, in his song. He would find blue in the way Eren looked walking down that aisle. Levi would find red in his first meeting with their adopted child, or the way she looked all grown up in her prom dress all those years later. He would find color in the rest of his life with Eren, even if he couldn’t see it, and it would be okay. He would make a kaleidoscope out of his own heart to see the world in vibrant colors.

And everything would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! ❤


End file.
